UAE - The latest addition to the entertainment outlets at Dubai’s Atlantis, The Palm Hotel’s Wavehouse is a family-friendly entertainment centre built on the site of a former nightclub. Wavehouse provides two floors of arcade attractions, a 13m high soft play area and a ProSlide Waverider surf machine as well as numerous F&B outlets, a sun terrace, mezzanine and a pair of live stages. Wavehouse’s operator Solutions Leisure has had a long relationship with Dubai-based systems integrator Pulse Middle East, relying on the company to handle the audio integration at a number of its other venues and contacted the team at Pulse ME to create a comprehensive solution for the venue. “The team at Solutions Leisure invited Pulse ME to come and have a look at a venue,” recalls Joe Chidiac, managing director, Pulse Middle East. “After the audio requirements brief, the team at Pulse ME presented a competitive and creative sound system to land the project and hopped on board with three months to design, install and integrate the sound system of this enormous space.” Covering such a large and diverse space required a high-quality networked audio solution that would be able to adapt to the needs of the changing clientele throughout the day. The solution designed and installed by Pulse ME is based upon the qualities of a variety of different TW Audio cabinets. “We were asked to design a multi-zone sound system where it’s possible to play any source in any zone, with different requirements for the bandwidth and achievable SPL in each zone,” explains Chidiac. “There are two stages – one inside and another outside. These zones in particular required a high dynamic range, for which we deployed T24Ns, backed up by an array of three B30s in the centre under the stage inside. Outside, we used five T24s to cover the whole area in front and to the back of the stage, along with four S33s for high output and pattern control. “The transition between the setups of bands playing on different stages, DJs or TV must be seamless,” he continues. “Therefore, firstly speaker placement had to be carefully considered to allow the whole venue to get adequate sound coverage considering an audio focal point of either stage. Then, delays and levels had to be set correctly for each of the three modes to change the focal point. With T24Ns used as the main speakers, we used T20s, M12s and M10s to provide high output coverage to the rest of these zones as delay speakers.” Inside, further T24Ns have been installed, alongside C5 multifunctional loudspeakers while the restaurant areas are covered by M8, M10 and M12 enclosures. In total, 63 TW Audio loudspeakers have been deployed across Wavehouse in an installation project that ran for just 12 weeks. “Everybody involved is thrilled with the outcome,” concludes Chidiac. “Wavehouse turned out to be a great looking venue with amazing sound that serves all requirements requested by the client.” (Jim Evans)